Gymnast Simone Biles has already been prominent in the media space around documentaries and other films on her.
Now, she’ll be working with Religion of Sports to help bring others’ stories to light.
Biles was featured in ROS’ Simone vs. Herself series in 2021, with that following a similar series on Steph Curry and Tom Brady. She was then featured in the four-part series Simone Biles Rising (from ROS, the Olympic Channel, and Netflix) this summer and fall. And she was also spotlighted in a 2018 Lifetime movie based on her Courage to Soar autobiography.
But now, as Axios’ Sara Fischer reports, Biles is joining ROS as a creative partner and board member to help produce and direct others’ stories. She thinks her background in individual sports and perspective as an elite female athlete will help tell some different stories there.
“If you asked me what I wanted to do when I was younger, I always wanted to be a nurse to help people,” Biles said. “And obviously, that’s off of the table now, but I still feel like we can help people in our communities through storytelling.”
…”Coming from an individual sport, it is a little bit different than Michael and Tom’s approach,” she said, referring to ROS co-founders Strahan and Brady. “So I think I can give a little bit of insight of my career, my journey, and how that works. And again, me being female as well, I think that brings something new to the table.”
Her new role comes as the importance of diverse voices in sports media is more widely recognized than ever. Biles also told Fischer her decision to partner with ROS was easy, given their previous collaborations and shared vision.
“They’ve embraced me as their own. There’s no better company that I believe in.”
Fischer notes that ROS currently has around 40 full-time employees, and co-founder Gotham Chopra says they’re in a “very stable place.” They’re expected to produce more than 12 major projects this year. We’ll see which of those Biles ends up involved with.
About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.